We believe that descendants should never forget the rich history of sharecroppers and the honor of their struggle against oppression of the planters, farmers and the desperate conditions of their lives.

Owen-Zella Whitfield Foundation

One of Missouri's most significant yet neglected events of recent American labor history called

"The SharecropperStrike of 1939"

During the month of
January year 1939 in Southeast Missouri, more than one thousand sharecropper
families with their meager belongings appeared alongside two state
highways, These sharecroppers had left
the Missouri Bootheel Cotton plantations where they lived and worked to
stage a dramatic demonstration.

They were protesting a new farm policy, the Agricultural
Adjustment Act that had come from the New Deal Administration of President
Franklin Roosevelt. Plantation owners found a loophole in this
policy which allowed them to keep government money they owed the
sharecroppers – if they fired their current sharecroppers and hired new ones to
take their place.

The sharecroppers braved the harsh winter weather of January for
several days. This caught the attention of the national press and
the First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. It caused such a stir that Rev and
Mrs. Whitfield were invited to the White House to discuss the situation with
the President.

Activist Fannie Cook organized a committee of citizens to send
relief to the protesters. Cook’s committee along with the Lincoln
University students donated money so that the sharecroppers, led by Owen
Whitfield could buy a parcel of land: 93 acres near Poplar Bluff,
Missouri. Several hundred both black and white sharecroppers moved
to the site, which came to be known as Cropperville.

The organizer of protest was an African Amercan Zella Whitfield felt a great love and

Minister, Reverend Owen H. Whitfield. responsibility not just for her own children